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Over the past few weeks, as we neared the fiscal cliff, President Obama has once again been spewing more of his class warfare rhetoric. He preached to his low-information constituency that those at the top of the income ladder need to pay their fair share of taxes.

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By ROBERT PICKUP JR.

southcoasttoday.com

By ROBERT PICKUP JR.

Posted Jan. 16, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By ROBERT PICKUP JR.

Posted Jan. 16, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

Over the past few weeks, as we neared the fiscal cliff, President Obama has once again been spewing more of his class warfare rhetoric. He preached to his low-information constituency that those at the top of the income ladder need to pay their fair share of taxes.

According to Obama, these people didn't build their own success, thus entitling the government to a higher share of the success it helped build. Under the deal Congress just reached, people with incomes above $400,000 will see their tax rate increase from 35 to 39.6 percent. Joe Biden asserted that it is patriotic to pay more taxes. Taking this reasoning to its logical conclusion, it would be patriotic for those receiving aid to take a corresponding 4.6 percent reduction in their benefits, you know "shared sacrifice" and all. This political stance and the outcome that resulted were based on faulty premises. The implication that successful individuals didn't work hard and without the government's help falls apart upon examination.

According to Thomas Sowell, "the top 20 percent of households by income contained 19 million heads of household who worked, compared to fewer than 8 million who worked in the bottom 20 percent. Also in the top 5 percent of households, there were more heads of household who worked full time than in the bottom 20 percent."

The second false premise is that the wealthy don't pay their fair share. Once again that is false, the top 10 percent of income earners pay more than 50 percent of all income taxes and the bottom 50 percent don't pay anything. To top it all off, those bottom 20 percent who don't work at the same rate or for as long as the top 20 percent "receive 77 percent of their income from cash and in-kind transfers."

If the president were really interested in fairness, he wouldn't want to put the entire burden of the federal budget onto the backs of those who only constitute 10 percent use of the roads, bridges, military etc. To make sure everyone pays their fair share, let's have a minimum tax so that those who currently pay nothing would contribute. Close all tax loopholes, subsidies and credits for the wealthy and middle class. It is time for these groups to stop benefiting from the tax code.

Finally, let us means-test welfare recipients, that is, give drug tests, and, as I've heard suggested, have those on assistance perform a weekly public service until they acquire work. If it were required that everyone was to contribute, it would encourage a solution to the country's fiscal madness.